Город страшной ночи

VII

  Some say that phantoms haunt those shadowy streets,
    And mingle freely there with sparse mankind;
  And tell of ancient woes and black defeats,
    And murmur mysteries in the grave enshrined:
  But others think them visions of illusion,
  Or even men gone far in self-confusion;
    No man there being wholly sane in mind.

  And yet a man who raves, however mad,
    Who bares his heart and tells of his own fall,
  Reserves some inmost secret good or bad:
    The phantoms have no reticence at al
  The nudity of flesh will blush though tameless
  The extreme nudity of bone grins shameless,
    The unsexed skeleton mocks shroud and pall.

  I have seen phantoms there that were as men
    And men that were as phantoms flit and roam;
  Marked shapes that were not living to my ken,
    Caught breathings acrid as with Dead Sea foam:
  The City rests for man so weird and awful,
  That his intrusion there might seem unlawful,
    And phantoms there may have their proper home.